Rocci Fisch

October 18, 2007

THE MEDIA MAKES YOU SICK OF EVERYTHING

. . . Music, people, news stories, favorite things, you name it. It’s all run into the ground, repeatedly being constantly drilled into our heads. I want more choices.
. . . TV, the Internet, newspapers, radio, magazines, ads … Everything’s the Top 5 or the “most read” and practically nothing else -- the same old garbage recycled over and over again. Can’t we delve deeper? Isn’t there anything or anybody else out there in the world to talk about and report on?
. . . It’s all tunnel vision, if you ask me, ruled by editors and producers who let writers and people on TV and everywhere else “weigh in” on the same thing.
. . . Can’t we get more variety, can’t we end the repetition?
UNTASTEFUL. Holly Morris of Fox5 Morning News in Washington, D.C., visited the new Madame Tussauds wax museum that recently opened and was showing the various personalities whose likenesses are there. When she came to “Johnny Depp,” she got very close and ran her fingers through his hair and cuddled up to his face and was practically making love to the stiff and then admitted to the TV anchors back in the studio that she was “getting hot” and wiped her brow with her arm, for crissakes. It was an odd couple of moments and a little weird, making love to a mannequin or whatever you call those life-like dummies.
. . . Acting out her fantasies? No way for a TV “reporter” to behave, very over the line.
Michael Vick, the Atlanta Falcons quarterback accused of dogfighting, had to take an animal appreciation course (“Developing Empathy for Animals”) from the folks at PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) and reportedly received a diploma for all his hard work.
. . . The animal rights organization also may ask him to make a PSA (Public Service Announcement) on the subject, for cryin’ out loud.
. . . What’s next? The lecture circuit, talk shows to smoothe the image?
EVERYWHERE I LOOK. It seems now every other young woman I see on the street has that Amy Winehouse (British pop singer - soul, jazz, R&B) look. Echoes of '60s hairstyles -- high on top, bee-hived, all ratted up and wearing heavy makeup, tattoos, tight pants, flat shoes, sorta like something out of The Addams Family combined with those girl groups back then, only they didn’t look so disheveled.
. . . But she’s got taste in her music backup. She’s into old R&B/Soul/Funk and used The Dap-Kings (from Brooklyn) and they’re pros in recreating that vintage sound similar to James Brown’s band and that of Memphis’ famous Stax Records.
. . . Winehouse sort of brought The Dap-Kings to prominence and now they’re getting more recognition.
. . . There’s a lot of good buzz over the group’s new album, 100 Days, 100 Nights, which features Sharon Jones’s hard-driving voice along with the group.
. . . MY 2 CENTS. Got the album and was disappointed. The old soul sound is there but the album could be better. I’ve seen Sharon Jones do Marva Whitney’s (James Brown protégé) Things Got To Get Better (1968, King) in a YouTube video and that thing rocked. But that excitement is definitely not captured on this current disc. And the songs are blasé and not written well. (They say their album before this current one is better, will try it.)
HOW DO THE CRITICS FEEL? Tyler Perry’s Why Did I Get Married, not paid that much attention to before it came out, scored No. 1 at the box office this past weekend, besting the other new releases of the week. It surprised some people but Perry taps into a market out there with his plays, TV shows and movies about contemporary African Americans.
. . . Perry himself is in this one, but he doesn’t play his famous pistol-packin’ mama character Madea from past movies and plays. This time he plays a husband named Tyler who, with his wife, join three other couples on a weekend trip to the mountains in Colorado and relationship-type things (infidelity, arguments) start to happen.
. . . Janet Jackson’s in it, plays a shrink (believe that?) and so is popular neo-soul singer Jill Scott. So it’s a hit.
“MICHAEL CLAYTON.” Movie starring George Clooney in the title role who plays a “fixer” at a high-powered law firm in New York City who doesn’t really handle cases anymore but does other things to keep the firm and its partners in running order - in other words, he does the dirty work. There’s a big case that Karen Crowder (actress Tilda Swinton) is handling that involves a huge financial settlement that looks like it’s gonna turn out good for the client and the firm but senior partner, Arthur Edens (the great Tom Wilkinson), knows the real deal and what’s behind the case and threatens to sabotage everything. In the meantime he goes off his meds (manic depressive) and sort of freaks out everywhere. Clooney tries to straighten him out ...
. . . but the firm’s got other ideas. Good cast, good acting, decent story.
Everytime I hear about that Blackwater stuff in the news it makes me think about Smackwater Jack, a song by Carole King (1971, dates me, huh?) off her Tapestry album, about a man who shoots down a church congregation. It does have the somewhat now, appropriate lyrics: “you can’t talk to a man, with a shotgun in his hand …” Oh well, just a little sidebar there, sorry.
Vicente Fox, former president of Mexico and in the U.S. on a book (Revolution of Hope) tour, called President Bush a “windshield cowboy.” (Sing to tune of Glen Campbell’s Rhinestone Cowboy) He said Bush prefers to drive a car rather than a horse and when he offered Bush a ride on his palomino in Mexico one time, Bush backed away from the poor animal.
. . . Fox also called Bush “the cockiest guy I have ever met in my life.”
. . . “A horse is a horse, of course, of course …”
I wish somebody would mess up Mitt Romney’s hair. It’s much too perfect. Is there ever a hair out of place? He’d seem more human if we saw a follicle or two hanging down on his forehead from time to time or maybe the part not being perfectly straight. Somebody go mess it up.
Former President Jimmy Carter’s got a new book out (Beyond the White House). When doesn’t he have a new book out? Every time you see him he’s pitching a new one.
. . . How many people is he gonna p_ _ off with this one? (His last one, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid), raised some eyebrows.)
SUSPENSION OF DISBELIEF. New movie, We Own the Night, has Mark Wahlberg and Jaoquin Phoenix playing two brothers (with Robert Duvall as their father) … Yeah those guys all really look alike. They oughta make those filmmakers do DNA tests before casting their next movie. We want reality.
. . . Nevertheless, the movie’s a police drama about those two brothers on opposite sides of the law and involves a plot about Russian drug dealers who are out to get one of them.
. . . And speaking of the Russians, another movie that’s been out, Eastern Promises, also explores the Russian mafia. The thriller that takes place in London with Viggo Mortensen as Nicolai Luzhin, Naomi Watts as Anna Kitrova and others involving a dead mother and her surviving child, an organized crime family, murder, deceit and retribution.
. . . Pretty good, has violent parts and is directed by David Cronenberg who most recently did A History of Violence (2005).
. . . This is the flick where Viggo is seen naked for a good five minutes or so in a fight scene/wrestling match in a sauna with a rival. His body’s all covered in tattoos which symbolize the gangster culture he’s in by representing conquests.
. . . So they fight and fight and fight and there’s a lot of moving around and you can see his vitals and he looks in shape and doesn’t have much fat on his worked-out body. It’s not a sexy scene.
Soledad O’Brien of CNN seems to be adapting some of news anchor Rick Sanchez’s irritating body language. (Mr. Sanchez likes to move around while he’s on camera even while sitting down at the anchor desk, lots of using the hands and moving the head and gesturing and visibly pondering what he’s going to say next by gazing into the air, a thinking man. Totally shtick, ridiculous. What, he got ADD? Just sit still and stop squirming.)
. . . Anyway, that’s what Ms. O’Brien seemed to be doing when she was 2-waying with daytime CNN anchor Don Lemon about her Minds of the D.C. Snipers special that aired last week. I’d hate to see Soledad and Rick on camera together, I’d have to get a wider TV screen to capture all their fidgeting.
ANOTHER SCHOOL SHOOTING. Seems like it’s every time you turn around. It’s copycat, if you ask me -- a way to get famous. Kids want to be on TV; they know they’ll get coverage and they want to go down in infamy or something
Mr. Big Stuff asked how one would address the Dalai Lama. Mr. Lama? “Is that his last name,” he asks. And MBS also asked if he, the Dalai, brought any lamas with him to the states.
A TIME FOR LOVE. A real estate friend of mine and an assistant went to view a potential house to sell and couldn’t enter the premises (he had the keys) because a couple was in there having sex. Geesh. A woman came to the door half-dressed, apologized, said it was her brother’s place and offered a Coke or water because she felt so guilty. She then got herself in order and let in the agents.
. . . You never know what you’re gonna be confronted with in this world.
Jennifer Lopez (J.Lo) has been making the rounds on TV and in concert with her husband, Mark Anthony. She’s got a new album out called Brave (primarily dance-oriented) and this is her first tour, believe it or not. And of course, everyone is wanting to know whether she’s pregnant because they claim she’s got a “baby bump.” She won’t say anything about it, just saying that it’s a very “happy time” for her.
. . . On GMA last week she noticeably didn’t move around a lot on stage during the dance routines; she let her backup dancers do that, so maybe she’s taking it easy because of her condition.
Some blogger meanly commented and said of Nicole Kidman, who had her hair in an up-do at the New York Film Festival last weekend: “I could probably land a small aircraft on her forehead. Possibly two, if the wind’s not against me.” Cheap shot.
. . . I don’t like that because I’m in love with Nicole and I don’t want anyone to hurt her.
Olympic gymnast Mary Lou Retton’s now hawking Oxford partial knee replacements on TV. What, did all that jumping and flying in the air finally destroy hers? Shoulda thought’a that while she was doing all that flippin’ on the mats way back when.
. . . I guess she’s appealing to all the baby boomers out there who’ve abused their now tired old bodies and are facing older age. She joins Sally Field, also hawking, who pitches for Boniva, that once-a-month med for postmenstrual osetoporosis.
The Lifetime cable channel has three new reality shows starting up. One of them is called How to Look Good Naked, which premieres Jan.4, reports the New York Post.
. . . I thought Lifetime was wholesome.
Someone wrote in to a chat on washingtonpost.com the other day and asked if Fred Thompson got an attack of acid reflux on that Republican candidate debate they had in Dearborn, Mich.
. . . He did look like that might’ve been happening every time he looked down to check his notes.
. . . And speaking of the same party, a fellow resident of the Curmudgeon Corner who follows politics closely suggested this regarding Rudy Giuliani’s race for the White House: “Why doesn’t Giuliani just tattoo a big 9/11 on the back of his big head so he doesn’t have to keep bringing it up?”
A NICKNAME I DON’T DESIRE TO HAVE. One of the young upstarts at my job called me a “gray panther.” Out of respect or derision?
Some people are talking about how Bruce Springsteen looks like he might’ve gotten something done to his face, has no lines in it, looks too smooth for his age. Me not sure. He’s been making a lot of appearances to promote his latest album, Magic.
. . . Critics have been all over it, like flies on sh_ _, praising it to the high heavens.
. . . They say it’s a return to his rock 'n’ roll days and not some esoteric project like some of his more recent stuff.
. . . But there have been complaints, though, about the audio mix sounding muddy and not clear and someone said that they should’ve gotten the person who did Patti Scialfa’s (Bruce’s wife) latest album (Play It as It Lays). “That one was superior in the mix category,” said the music fan.
. . . I can’t say that for her voice.
The other night on Washington’s Metro subway I got on a train that someone had obviously gotten sick in. I got a hint of it as I stepped in the car but wasn’t sure, since there are all kinds of smells that permeate the atmosphere down there in the hole, but I gave it chance. Once I sat down, though, it really hit me and I could tell my seatmate was bothered by it too. The place wreaked and I almost blew my lunch too, it was awful.
. . . I know it’s only human and whoever did it couldn’t help it but Metro … Take the GD train out of circulation the next time this happens until the odor dissipates. Commit it to the train yard until we know it smells nice and fresh again. Stop offending the passengers.
Those CNBC babes are getting to be a bit much: Maria Bartiromo, Erin Burnett and now Trish Regan, a real smiley girl who 2-ways often with local morning anchors, including Joe Krebs and Barbara Harrison of Channel 4 in D.C. We’ve found out in the chatter that Regan’s from New Hampshire and Harrison commented on how beautiful it is up there. Boy, that’s nice.
Ralph Lauren’s on the cover of Town & Country magazine and has a pair of those rider pants on that are tight and gathered on the leg down from the knee and look like bloomers at the top. I guess he’s in horse country. Looks ridiculous. The article, of course, is titled Ralph Lauren: His Life and Legend.
. . . Legends, icons … I’m sick of those dumb designations. Overused words.
SHOW. Jane Siberry, now known as Issa (for what reason I don’t know) played at a coffee house outside of Washington this past weekend. The Canadian singer/songwriter did material from her new album which is a lot about super-heroes. She’s a very unique artist/performer and her delicate voice along with her musical impressions of daily life make seeing her an event for her cult fans, of which I am one.
Jordache jeans keeps running that full-page ad of a young, long-haired blond (seen from the back) looking at herself in the mirror with nothing on up top. Her hair seems to cover the tips of her you-know-whats but not really. If you look close you can almost see.
. . . How do they get away with that?
Hanalie, dog in the neighborhood, actually is not in the neighborhood. She’s on another trip to Charleston, S.C., with owner Sally, staying at the Charleston Place Hotel which welcomes the dog with shouts of “Hello Hana.” They know her as a frequent guest and she receives a lot of pampering during her stay.
Sean Jean’s (Diddy) perfume, Unforgivable Woman, uses as its slogan “Life Without Passion is Unforgivable,” and in the picture that runs in the mags to advertise it he almost looks like he’s strong-arming some woman up against a wall.
. . . Diddy gets what he wants.
“I drank water out of the crick,” said Doris Anderson, 76, the Oregon woman who survived for two weeks alone in the wilderness. We used to say that once in a while (instead of creek) back in Havre de Grace, Md.
. . . So am I a hick?
REMINDER: Fall back on Sunday, Nov. 4, at 2 a.m. ET.
Matt Lauer was using glasses to look down at his notes while interviewing Sen. Larry Craig and his wife about the Idaho Republican’s “airport bathroom sex sting” (Lauer’s words) on the Today show Tuesday. So the eyes’re starting to go, huh Matt? Happens to us all.
. . . The glasses were bigger than just normal reading glasses; maybe they were progressives, the ones that allow you to see close up, at medium range and up top, at a distance. They cost a fortune but Lauer, I’m sure, has the money.
The renovated (for a younger buying public) Old Spice company is running a magazine ad which shows a soap dish with a bar of soap in it with hairs stuck to the soap. A disgusting site. And the ad says, “May we suggest Old Spice Body Wash? Now in classic scent.”
. . . May we suggest washing your mouth out with soap? What ad man came up with that concept?
. . . Meredith Vieira was helping Italian cooking chef Lidia Matticchio Bastianich prepare a fresh vegetable pasta (fettuccini) dish the other morning and when it was ready, Lidia handed the Today show host her plate and Meredith asked where the wine was. It was conveniently pre-poured and on the table and Lidia handed a glass to Meredith who took a small sip of it. It looked like real wine and not colored water.
. . . Is that okay for her to do, drink on TV? I thought nobody really did that on TV. Is there a law against that? Just asking.
A couple of weeks ago Hillary Clinton was on all five Sunday morning talk shows: Fox News Sunday, ABC’s This Week, Meet the Press, Face the Nation and CNN’s Late Edition .
. . . Was that really necessary? What, she wanted to make sure her message got out? Was she pressured by each individual show that if you do them you gotta do us? Probably.
. . . It’s just gotta stop. It’s a vanity thing for the networks. No one wants to get upstaged and miss getting the hot guest.
. . . So somebody stop the cycle, break the chain. Say no once in a while and move on to something else. We don’t need the redundancy. And the public knows it.
UH . . . Tell Her No - The Zombies, on Parrot Records, 1965.

rocci@roccifisch.com